To paraphrase one of his album titles, why does everybody dig Bill Evans? Something special happened every time Bill Evans played the piano. Time stood still or seemed to suspend and disappear. When he flew […]
At first I thought this album, with its fiery portrait of Bob Marley and the number 400 written with the bold colors of Jamaica, was a follow up to the Avery Sharpe 400 album I […]
Many jazz fans have never heard of pianist Lennie Tristano. I would imagine a great many jazz musicians, however, would immediately recognize the name. Tristano was known more as a teacher than a performer, and […]
As you might imagine, reviewing all this high-end audio equipment in the context of maintaining a certain sound of the system can be difficult. This week has been a big period of changes, with a […]
Is Record Store Day still a thing? Right now I’m swimming in new releases that were released in conjunction with RSD, as we now call it, Ken Micallef has been writing about RSD releases for […]
Sarah Lee is a tenor saxophone player with an interesting story–she was in IT for 20 years and then decided to follow her dreams. We see a lot of these stories on the contemporary jazz […]
Have I mentioned my drummer friend Florian Arbenz? As I matter of fact I have, when I reviewed his album Reflections with sax player Greg Osby last fall. I call him my “friend” because he’s […]
Some of my favorite jazz trios are sax trios, proven by my continuing awe at classic LPs such as Sonny Rollins’ Way Out West. I feel as if they’ve been rare lately, and perhaps that’s […]
When you talk about contemporary jazz in the United States, you’ll probably be talking about New York City at some point. No matter where you’re from, you’re probably headed there to pay your dues and […]
Every generation of music lovers should listen beyond the popular music of the day. If you don’t do the enjoyable, deep listening required to appreciate classical, blues, Brazilian, as well as other, more esoteric styles […]
I’ve fallen for Trees Speak‘s new LP PostHuman in the same way that I fell in love with Rasmus Kjaer’s Turist a year ago. Both albums are part of that nebulous world of electronica, but […]
Acclaimed trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith turns 80 this year, and TUM Records has decided to throw him an amazing party by releasing a number of “monumental” releases over the year. These are the first two, […]
Some of the best contemporary jazz out there is the result of two cultures, or two different genres of music, colliding. With drummer/composer Ches Smith and his new album Path of Seven Colors, I’m getting […]
A quick note before getting to George Russell. Although I’m a big fan—and consumer—of LP reissues, it sometimes seems as if a sizeable segment of the reissue market consists of a relatively limited selection of […]
My ever-evolving reference system has currently morphed into a piano-reproducing machine, so the timing of Eventyr, a solo piano recording from 2L Recordings, is fortuitous. “Eventyr” is a Norwegian word “that conjures up fairy tales, […]
I’ve seen this type of album cover quite often in the world of contemporary jazz, just a photo of the artist or two, and the simplest of titles that suggest no one cared about the […]
I feel like it’s been a while since I last heard a new female voice album that I really like. At the same time, I realize I’ve been awfully critical of the average audiophile’s obsession […]
If you’re an analog, aka vinyl lover, I’ll cut to the big magilla: John Lennon’s remastered solo debut LP, Plastic Ono Band, humiliates the original 1970 US pressing. The new pressing, which I assume was […]
The cold weather seems to be finished for the year, and the days are warm and the sun is starting to shine a little more in the Pacific Northwest. Our patio is stocked with flowering […]
Contemporary jazz has been fertile ground for cultural mashups over the last few years. Entire record labels, such as Zoho, are completely dedicated to the idea of jazz traditions being absorbed into folk music traditions […]
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